Red Sox Journal: Ortiz notes tenure, pride in taking leadership role

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Tim Wakefield retired. Jason Varitek isn’t here. The longest-tenured member of the Red Sox is now David Ortiz.

By TIM BRITTON | | Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Tim Wakefield retired. Jason Varitek isn'there. The longest-tenured member of the Red Sox is now DavidOrtiz.

He took that responsibility pretty seriously on Saturdaymorning.

Ortiz was the only player who spoke to the team in their annualorganizational meeting on the first day of full-squad workouts,talking about the pride he has to wear a Red Sox jersey.

"Basically, I'm one of the older guys here that has been herefor the last couple of years. We had those meetings and we neverstep up and say things," said Ortiz. "We just do nothing butlisten. But today I think was a good time for us as players to makesure our owners don't feel guilty about the job that they do."

Ortiz was particularly laudatory of Boston's owners.

"I know our owners took a lot of heat last year. They are theowners but they don't play the game," he said. "People have to beproud of the owners this organization has because they're notafraid to go out there and pay tons of money to a player to makethe organization better and make sure the fans get a goodshow."

Ortiz said his motivation for the speech came from within, andhe didn't decide to address the team until Saturday morning.

"It's like I told my teammates: Wearing the Red Sox on yourchest, on your jersey, you've got to be proud of that," saidOrtiz.

Much like he did earlier in the week when he arrived, Ortiztalked about assuming more of a leadership role - but one derivedfrom the example of doing the right thing.

Manager Bobby Valentine said Ortiz's speech was "one of thosethings in there that went really well."

Henry apologized to Crawford for his offseason revelation on theradio that he wasn't behind the decision to sign the outfielderlast winter.

Appearing on WBZ-FM in October, Henry was confronted with theidea that the acquisitions of Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez had beenat least partially motivated by public relations; namely, to quellthe talk that Fenway Sports Group's purchase of Liverpool wouldaffect its management of the Red Sox.

"Can you imagine spending $300 million for PR?" Henry respondedwith an incredulous tone. "[Crawford was] definitely a baseballsigning. In fact, anyone involved in the process, anybody involvedin upper management with the Red Sox will tell you that Ipersonally opposed that. They all know that.

"I'll just tell you that at the time I opposed the deal, but Idon't meddle to the point of making decisions for our baseballpeople."

On Saturday, Henry said it was an "off-the-cuff" remark heregretted making during an impromptu radio appearance.

"I should have never made those comments," Henry said.

Crawford said the apology "means a lot."

Epstein deal

"All's well that ends."

President Larry Lucchino's truncation of the popularcliché served as the team's epigraph to its compensationnegotiations with the Cubs over former general manager TheoEpstein.

The Red Sox received right-handed reliever Chris Carpenter inexchange for Epstein on Wednesday, four months after the GMimmigrated to the North Side.

Henry didn't sound enthusiastic about the entireproceedings.

"If it's a tough negotiation; both sides are generally a littleunhappy with the way it works," Henry said. "The Cubs probablyaren't 'happy' with it; we probably aren't 'happy' with it. Giventhe amount of time that was spent on it, it probably was theappropriate result.